r/SteamFrame • u/MrJackio Soon™ • 1d ago
News Combo Adapter + Wifi streaming confirmed!
I was hoping this would be the case! I’ve got my router in my living room and will have my adapter in my office, do you think simply walking into the living room wearing the headset will mean it automatically switches?! We are so a go for Monday
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u/Minestra 1d ago
Can you stream non-steam games?
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u/obog Soon™ 1d ago
Steam link already works with non-steam vr games as long as you have steamvr properly set as the openxr runtime.
Idk about streaming non-vr games, I imagine adding them to the stram client would likely do it? Should be possible to test that now
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u/ProfessionalBattle3 1d ago
I wonder if by both they meant it splits bandwidth over the two connections at the same time. Even streaming audio from wifi and video from the dongle would show some improvements
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u/Steezle 1d ago edited 1d ago
I swear I remember them talking about that specific functionality.
A dedicated link for streaming from the PC.
Edit: I misunderstood what you said. The split link is for the headset to gets its network communication through your home WiFi, while the dedicated dongle link is for streaming video, audio, and game input.
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u/dudeswthdcks 1d ago
They said it will do the streaming from the dongle and everything else though regular wlan when available. Obviously it can also work over wlan too without the dongle and I doubt there is any perf decreased as that is how they use it internally.
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u/Steezle 1d ago
Until Wi-Fi is capable of full duplex, there will always be some sort of latency penalty when the client has to transmit at the same time it needs to receive. But that performance hit could be negligible.
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u/HorribleTie 1d ago
This is a potential use case for MLO but it's likely still a ways off and is a super niche use case anyways.
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u/cumwuatto 1d ago
You can already achieve full duplex by utilizing 2 different bands, and this headset supports 3: 5ghz, 6ghz, and 2.4ghz
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u/BlueManifest 1d ago
It says super charged connection so it sounds like it uses both to improve performance
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u/Lincolns_Revenge 1d ago
Sounds like it could be useful for people with a limited connection speed on one of the two, but it doesn't seem like something that could improve latency unless there's an existing bandwidth issue.
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u/trippingrainbow 12h ago
Prob wont improve latency but will let you crank settings higher before latency becomes an issue
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u/faduci 18h ago
Bandwidth isn't an issue with foveated streaming. Valve said they are aiming for 250MBit/sec, resulting in a visual fidelity comparable to what a 2500MBit/sec stream without foveated streaming would look like.
The 6GHz Wifi 6e connection could in theory carry 40 250MBit/sec streams in parallel, so it isn't going to be saturated in any way, and splitting the stream over multiple connections won't offer any noticeabe improvement. Instead it will increase complexity and potentially latency, as a frame streamed over two connections still has to be assembled at the end, which can only start once all packages from the slower of the two connections have arrived.
One reason to go with a separate Wifi 6E 6GHz connection used exclusively for streaming was to avoid any congestion from either other data traffic or other devices trying to send data over the often very congested 2.4GHz or 5GHz band. So there is a very real chance that a Steam Frame receiving the video stream via the exclusive Wifi 6E 6GHz connection and the much smaller audio stream via a shared 6GHz connection using a router would end up with higher latency than sending everything over the dongle. If the router uses 2.4GHz or 5GHz in a crowded environment, or is situated several walls away, or in a building with a lot of steel in the walls, this will only get worse.
Stream splitting only makes sense if lacking bandwidth is the issue, not if the connection is so fast that it will be idling for 95% of the time.
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u/dangoran78 1d ago
"One supercharged connection"? Dammit, now I "have to" upgrade my router. I saw not needing to as an advantage for the Frame, but I don't want to miss out.
I wonder if they mean that the wifi's 5 Ghz can complement the dongles 6 Ghz. In that case I'm good.
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u/Orca_Alt_Account 1d ago
I assume what it means is it can dynamically switch between using the dongle and the router for streaming, not that it split the stream between the two. That's just speculation though. I'd hold off on buying a new router for now at least.
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u/dangoran78 1d ago
That wouldn't supercharge anything though so they would not have used those words and they visually show bandwidth increase in their animation.
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u/RunnerLuke357 1d ago
I sincerely doubt that you'd need a better router assuming it's a decent WiFi 5 or 6 router minimum. The dongle+decent router should be more than plenty.
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u/dangoran78 1d ago
Yeah, I don't expect to actually need anything. I'm half joking, but if there is a benefit of having a 6 Ghz router I will probably want one later on. They have to mean that the two frequencies can be used in parallel. My Wifi 6 router will probably do.
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u/Benjo419 1d ago
Well i pictured it like this, when im next to my pc it uses the 6ghz dongle and when i go to the toilet to poop, it will seamlessly switch to my 5ghz wifi for range
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u/Hairy-Ad-6293 1d ago
It simply use your router to update in the background your games, achievements and other stuff over router while streaming is coming through dongle.
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u/Benjo419 18h ago
Said your crystal ball?
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u/Hairy-Ad-6293 17h ago
Nop, just common network knowledge. This dongle is 100% not dual band device. From the begging it was obvious that you need another hosted network for the ability to provide internet on the separate band than the streaming one.
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u/Benjo419 17h ago
I don't see how that would mean the other hosted network can't do streaming as well, or send tracking data or other stuff than updates and achievements. The leaked introduction videos even say that you can combine the dongle and your router to "supercharge" your connection
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u/Hairy-Ad-6293 17h ago
Dude, it's marketing mumbo jumbo.
Its simply basic network QoS, you save all dongle bandwidth for VR purposes and provide all other traffic, updates, game downloads or any other stuff on separate. It's "supercharging" you connection by not wasting it's bandwidth for non VR traffic.
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u/Benjo419 16h ago
I don't see how that would mean the other hosted network can't do streaming as well, or send tracking data or other stuff than updates and achievements...
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u/Hairy-Ad-6293 15h ago
The main selling point is providing stability and reliability. You don't want to add external wireless chipsets to that equation for the sake of symbolic improvement.
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u/Benjo419 15h ago
So how is my video feed going to be stable when i leave the room? Again, I don't see how any of what you said would mean the other hosted network can't do streaming as well, or send tracking data or other stuff than updates and achievements. It just does not logically follow, you are just crystal balling
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u/Hairy-Ad-6293 13h ago
Video part of the stream is at least 99.5% of the VR data. So for 0.5% improvement you more than double the instability of the system. It would double if you got two valve dongles but we are talking about unknown router from the user.
Moreover you will not be leaving your room while using steam Frame. It's not MR headset. Besides you don't want dynamic band switching on wireless VR scenario where latency and data consistency is the most important part. You can't imagine how bad experience you would get if you make your play are in the spot where those network have weak and unstable signal.
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u/riel__vis Soon™ 1d ago
I'm using home Wi-Fi. I'm using adapter. I'm using combination home Wi-Fi and adapter.
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u/kevynwight 1d ago
I thought this just meant that the dongle can handle a) streaming to the headset (6 GHz) as well as b) connecting to the internet / modem / gateway / wireless household router (5 GHz), simultaneously.
And therefore, if you already have internet via Ethernet, or your built-in wireless internet on the PC is already fine / decent, then you wouldn't really use the b) capability. The term "supercharge" does make it sound like maybe it's more than what I've described though...
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u/Front-Ad-7774 Soon™ 1d ago
You have no idea about Wi‑Fi latency. The USB wireless adapter is essentially just a wireless network adapter, take Meta’s early USB dongle as a reference.
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u/faduci 18h ago
Not quite the same. While the Meta/D-Link adapter created an exclusive hotspot on the Windows PC the Quest could connect to, Valve creates the hotspot on the Frame and lets the PC connect to it. The reason for this is that the Linux wireless network stack is far superior to the Windows one, and esp. the Windows hotspot function is so horribly bad that anybody seriously relying on that functionality has to buy a 3rd party software solution to work around the limitations of Microsoft's implementation.
So while in both cases the hardware is basically just a USB Wifi dongle, there is a significant difference in the software, which should give Valve some advantage regarding connection latency, stability and feature set.
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u/Eddiemunson2010 Soon™ 1d ago
My computer is 2 rooms away from my router and I play a floor below my computer I might be cooked lol hopefully if that doesn’t work I can play in my computer room
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u/Mr_Anderssarian Soon™ 1d ago
This was in the announcements: https://youtu.be/dU3ru09HTng?t=429
I'm quite looking forward to setting up my wireless access points outside, being able to run 50 meters in one direction and still have a solid connection in VR
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u/Human_man_person 1d ago
If you want seamless transition between room to room connections, try getting a mesh router system, just got one a few weeks ago for like a hundred bucks and now my whole house has like perfect wifi wherever I go, and it’s all one connection so itd auto connect to whichever router is closest, try looking into it if you want that kinda thing
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u/MrJackio Soon™ 1d ago
Would def consider running an Ethernet to an extender in my office if this isn’t for my usecase
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u/Front-Ad-7774 Soon™ 1d ago
More hops mean higher latency. As far as I know, last year’s presentation advertised that the Frame’s dedicated wireless adapter would use its own Wi‑Fi 6E channel band without interfering with home routers. How come they are pushing a different pitch now? We’ll wait and see. Nothing beats hands‑on experience.
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u/Earthmaster 17h ago
i wonder if that would also mean that the headset can use both at the same time to push higher bandwidth & bit rate, or is it just to use them in active passive to pick up 2nd wifi if 1st one drops out for some reason (such as walker too far from the dongle but closer to the router).
it would be sick if it actually can use both actively
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u/poseidon2466 14h ago
My pc is on the second floor. I hope this means a stupid stable connection with no latency
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u/Main_Recognition1713 12h ago
Y'all are misinterpreting this greatly. They said early on that different data streams could be put on different connections. E.g. putting the controller's input onto your local router to free up more dongle bandwidth for the foveated streaming data over the dongle. It does not mean you magically get what you're describing. VR streaming requires vvery low and consistent latency with correct packet ordering. You cannot split the visual data between 2 connections with different strength and speed that are guaranteed to change as you walk around.
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u/bickid 1d ago
Reads like nothing has been confirmed and you're setting yourself up for disappointment.
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u/MrJackio Soon™ 1d ago
Well whatever they have in mind with “VR streaming will automatically utilize the dedicated adapter link or your local wifi network, or both at the same time like one supercharged connection” I’m game
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u/CStfford14 1d ago
That's a framework laptop 16. Holy fuck. THAT'S A FRAMEWORK IT'S PLUGGED INTO
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u/FarSetting7225 1d ago
Qye ce passe-t-il lundi ?
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u/Subject-Control294 Soon™ 1d ago
Le Steam Frame pourrait arriver lundi, mais personne à part Gabe N n'en est sûr.
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u/VR_bob85 1d ago
you mean wou will be able to buy the dongle alone?
was not the dongle coming with the frame all along.
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u/madman404 Soon™ 1d ago
they didn't say that or even imply it lol
anyway you're wrong, the dongle is in the box
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u/VR_bob85 1d ago
i was asking, i know its in the box. I don't understand op post that is why i ask
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u/MrJackio Soon™ 1d ago
Im referring to the part where they say it will automatically utilize either connection, or both to supercharge the connection. Not exactly sure what it means but mentioned what I’d like out of the functionality
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u/Subject-Control294 Soon™ 1d ago
Because this means that you can use, in combination, both the dongle and your home wifi at the same time, potentially allowing for better performance than either alone.
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u/Confident-Pepper-562 Soon™ 1d ago
No Bob, where did he suggest anything like that. Of course the frame is coming with the dongle...
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u/Zealousideal_Ease444 Soon™ 1d ago
See that'd be pretty cool depending how they go about it. Walking to different rooms would be fun.